MWC 2015: BlackBerry Leap, the mid-range 5-inch touchscreen smartphone launched

BlackBerry has announced a new mid-range smartphone dubbed Leap at the MWC. The smartphone will launch in April this year and carry a price tag of $275 (approximately Rs 17,000). With this device, the company plans to target young consumers. The BlackBerry Leap is an affordable all-touch smartphone which sports a 5-inch edge-to-edge HD display with a 720 x 1280 pixel resolution along with a 294ppi pixel density. It is powered by a Snapdragon S4 Plus chip, which has a 1.5GHz dual-core Krait CPU. It also includes 2GB RAM. The Leap runs BlackBerry 10.3.1 out-of-the-box. In terms of memory, the device has an in-built storage of 16GB and can be further expanded up to 128GB via microSD card. On the camera front, the BlackBerry Leap has an 8MP auto-focus camera with LED flash along with a 2MP front-facing camera. The device can record 1080p videos at 30fps and also has a 5x digital zoom. In terms of connectivity, it supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Hotspot, Bluetooth v4.0, A-GPS, 4G LTE and microUSB v2.0. The smartphone is fuelled by a non-removable Li Ion 2800mAh battery that claims to last for up to 25 hours, even after heavy use.

The company also plans to roll out two more models over the next months, both with a keyboard. One will be a high-end smartphone with what Blackberry calls “a dual curve all touch display” and a keyboard behind a slide. That may refer to the sort of curved screen featured in Samsung’s latest Galaxy smartphone. “We don’t have a code name for it but I call it The Slide,” BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen told media in Barcelona. “It will come some time this year,” he added without giving a specific date. Earlier this week at MWC, BlackBerry announced it planned to expand its cross-platform strategy by bringing features including the much-admired BlackBerry Hub and its virtual keyboard across to devices powered by rival platforms such as Android, Windows and iOS. With inputs from Reuters